(no subject)

So! I spent five hours puking last night.

Don't freak out, I'm okay -- okay, I'm sore as hell, but I'm still hydrated and the puking and nausea have both stopped. This isn't the first time I've done this, and in fact is not even my record for sporadic puking over a measured period; the reason I still can't eat tortilla soup is that the last time I did I puked for eight hours straight, and couldn't move the next day. We crossed Chuy's Mexican off our "okay to eat at" list after that.

Anyway, I'm drinking water spiked with a vinegar/sugar/salt mixture, which works like pedialyte or Gatorade only it actually kinda tastes nice. Whoever gave me that recipe, btw, thank you. And thank you, Ancient Romans, for inventing it! You also invented the arch, I'm pretty fond of that too.

Otherwise -- well, obviously my throat is sore, and my nose and ears are both congested, but I took my temperature and I'm not running a fever. I've taken some naproxen for the pain, and I'm going to be sleeping when I'm not watching videos today.

(no subject)

I was going to post this last night and then didn't, so I am posting it now.

People have asked why my handwarmer requires lighter fluid, and I will tell you: it is because there is FIRE involved. :D

The handwarmer is a 1955 design, apparently, reproduced by Restoration Hardware which is a shop here in the States that sells a bewildering combination of home-decorating hardware (faucets, drawer-pulls, paint, window-dressing) and funky retro gadgetry. Sort of like a general store for the Sharper Image set.

With apologies to Mr. Seah for the linkbombing he is about to receive, this is what it looks like disassembled. Like a zippo lighter, the base has wadding in it that you saturate with lighter fluid. Then you fit the bit that looks like a tiny microphone over the wadding and hold a lighter to it. It took a few tries to get it going, but once the fine mesh has begun to glow you put the lid back on it and tuck it into the red flannel bag that comes with it. Seah is right, the bag doesn't close very well, but I think putting a toggle on the drawstring ought to solve that problem.

This thing goes great guns, you guys. I tested it out and, once I got it lit, it heated up in no time and warmed my soul. With retro quasi-steampunky flair! I suspect Jack Baker invented these. Probably why he got that knighthood.

(no subject)

Considering that I am currently kind of useless in a "moving around" capacity, I've been trying to clean out my email backlog. Usually I star and keep suggestions for interesting stories/art/etc in my inbox, and I stumbled over this one.

You can see from the post that I mentioned a Grow Your Own Doctor kit, which was a tiny hand in a jar, and suggested that a Grow Your Own Jack Harkness kit would come in a discreet brown wrapper attached to a Penis Neti Pot.

Yep. I made a template for the Seed Packet for such a thing. Careful -- if you click the Full Size link the file is Very Large (hur hur hur).

Enjoy. :D

(no subject)

I think the last time I was this miserably sick was freshman year of college, when I spent two weeks in bed during spring semester. I don't even remember what I had, but I know I ate a lot of crackers and my sanity was only saved by Latin homework and videos my Film Studies professor sent me. He was a huge fan of Fred Astaire, I slept through so many ridiculous musical romances, and quite a few Cary Grant films as well.

Shut up, I find Latin very soothing. Such an efficient, lovely language.

Everything aches, though I know that most of it is from yesterday evening. My sinuses hurt, though the decongestants help, but then the decongestants make me nauseous. I'm eating a lot of celery, it's supposed to neutralise stomach acid. I haven't left my bed much, though I did get up and make some bread. I'm running out of bread, and I have no eggs so I can't make challah, and PeaPod won't deliver bread or eggs tomorrow, possibly because their delivery slots are booked or possibly because of inclement weather warnings. Anyway, I needed bread, and Spider linked me ages ago to no-knead bread so it's sitting near the radiator rising till tomorrow morning.

When I was a kid I had a book called A Big Ball Of String which many of you may remember as the Most Awesome Book You've Ever Owned -- scroll down to the second image (of the boy in bed) to see why. In the spirit of A Big Ball Of String, I broke a cardinal rule of being a real grownup ("You are no longer allowed to decorate anything indoors with Christmas lights except at Christmas") and took the LED christmas lights off my tree and strung them on my headboard. They make a remarkably good reading lamp.

I'm going to go drug myself into a stupor now. Scuse me.